March 2009 Blog Posts (10)

We hosted our second in a series of two-part workshops in Wilmette March 23-24 with 11 kids in attendance.

We had computer issues during the 1st day as a result of incomplete maintenance left over from the prior week. So I kept them an hour while we demonstrated Scratch projects and set up a Scratch account for everyone using my laptop and the one or two that were available.

On day two everything went fine. We went almost four hours (!) to make up for lost time the… Continue

And, we still had a core group of five in attendance. It seems that formal sessions are drawing more of an audience than the Open Labs. Any ideas for ways to fuse the two formats?

Here's another question: We have a teen who comes into the sessions with his brother's, he has creative ideas, and lots of enthusiatic energy. But, teaching him is difficult because he seems to be unable to read, sequence, or follow directions. If I stand next to him and ask him questions, or prompt him, he… Continue

Last Monday night I ran my first Scratch program, the first "Open Studio" we've had here at WPL. The plan was to have experienced and new users come and work on whatever Scratch projects they wanted. We had seven actual youth participants, ages 10-14, plus three teen volunteers. I made Scratch cards available, and I used Hillary's idea for challenges (pick an idea from a fishbowl). We divided up the new users between the teen volunteers. I floated between everyone.

So far, so good. We had a little bit of difficulty yesterday with the Scratch website and connectivity issues [at our Open Lab], but that seemed resolved today. Our very first formal session went really, really well!

Check out our gallery at: http://scratch.mit.edu/galleries/view/40433

We did a Simple Animation, One hour session today. The formal setting was much less chaotic, and all user's efforts resulted in posts to the ScratchR site. We had about eight teens in… Continue

I posted and shared a google doc with everyone that has about 10 workshop ideas and links to scratch galleries that have related projects. If you end up using one of the ideas and develop an outline, please post in google docs. Thanks!

"Coming this spring: an online digital library of curated music that will allow music fans, webcasters and podcasters to listen, download, and stream for free, with no restrictions, registration or fees. And it will all be legal."

Last week, Cynthia and I represented the library at North View Junior High's Family Literacy Night. We had a table with some info about programs and such. As all of you who have attended or repped at a community event know, offering something interactive is always a good idea, and prizes are even better.

We brought a couple laptops, a few sets of Scratch cards, and some random giveaway swag. We lured in passing students with a challenge: pick a card, any card; make it work and win a… Continue

I heard back from IMLS and we do need to add a disclaimer to any publicity that we generate, in print or web-based, for programs. Here is language to use: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program/website do not necessarily represent those of the Institute for Museum and Library Services.